Glad to have joined this group!

[Mark Hansen]

I’m VERY glad to have come across this website and know that I will really benefit from the expertise and advice of shipbuilders much more experienced than me. Thank you in advance! My pursuit of the wood ship model hobby began some 40 years ago by my building the warship Le Soleil Royal (by the Scientific company). It was pretty simple in the sense that its hull started as a solid wood piece that had to be carved and sanded into final shape. I’m also a long-time plastic model kit builder. Many years passed occupied by welcomed family and career activities, and now that I’m retired, I’m starting the hobby again. I bit off a lot to chew by buying the Billing Boats kit of the Norske Løve, which means I’ll be doing a planked hull. And I also have the Billing Boats Oseberg ship to build as well. I’m actually thinking of working on both ships simultaneously. So I’ll be relying a lot on what I can learn from all of you, for example, tips and techniques for trimming/bending/steaming/gluing the plank strips.

 

[Corsair]

Welcome to the forums, Mark !
There are plenty of people here ready to offer advice (probably a lot more than you want ) on any topic you can think of, ship model related or not.

 

[AllanKP69]

 

[Bill-R]

Hello Mark and welcome aboard.

Bill

 

[Kurt Konrath]

Welcome to the best forum around.

Where in the USA are you from, we have members all around, someone may be near you!

 

[swampdweller126]

Hello and welcome to the forum, from NY

 

[Ignatius27]

Mark -- Welcome to SoS! This is a very helpful and resource rich site for model ship builders. In case you didn't know, the current issue of "Ships In Scale" Magazine (Mar/Apr 2026) has a great article on building the B/B Oseberg Viking Ship. The article is called "How I Became a Viking Shipbuilder for a Moment" by Tomasz Klyszynski. It has great pictures of that ornamental Viking bow and stern and how the builder did that incredible planking job. Good luck and don't forget to put your work into build logs so you can get the most advice from this site. Fair seas!